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I see articles here and there about Orlando from the perspective of outsiders. I looked for a topic that might fit the postings, but to no avail. Feel free to move them around if they fit a topic elsewhere.

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Saw this article from a popular travel blog. Joseph Hayes (food writer for Orlando Magazine) made a comment about such articles that I liked. "Some day we might actually be able to own our fantastic side without someone saying, 'Yeah, Orlando is garbage, but ...' Never apologize for greatness!" It makes me wonder when it will be common knowledge that Orlando is in fact wonderful, and all the attempts to convince people will be a bygone thought.

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From the New York Times. Essentially the article examines how Harris Rosen's program in Tangelo Park changed the neighborhood through direct financial investment. Rosen funnelled money towards education, funding free daycares, and providing scholarships for graduating seniors attending state schools. His legacy changed Tangelo Park and will now be tested in Parramore.

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Interesting article from Worth.com about the venues and Buddy's vision for downtown. It differs from my own and it is sometimes a bit of a puff piece (not to mention some alternative facts along the way).

It does however state pretty well a 2017 version of the Orlando Myth; that is, the overarching idea of how we want the world to perceive us.

My very first job was a the Barnies - now a Starbucks - in Celebration. This was back in the days when Celebration was a local attraction and gawking onlookers would visit the town in droves, peering into private residences and in some instances even walking through front doors.

How times have changed. In the Strong Towns article, the author makes a relevant point to Celebration: as it has aged, as the trees have grown and the paint has worn thing, and as the businesses in the town center have assimilated to the locals rather than the gawkers, it has become a REAL place. It helps too that as it has aged its done so gracefully -- thank you Robert Stern, Graham Gund, and many other "starchitects" who brought a longer lasting vision to Celebration. Where so many other new urbanism towns have failed, Celebration has succeeded. That's not to say it doesn't have issues -- a few of the most glaring are it's connections to greater Osceola (physically, economically, socially), the retro-fitting of homes that are not energy efficient (aka built cheaply), and rampant NIMBYism.

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I think you're right. Back when it was the "Disney town," people treated it like a theme park attraction and that just added to the Stepford quality of the place. That definitely seems to have settled as most folks forget the Mouse tie-in.

Didn't the Publix that replaced the Goodings end up out by the highway? I think the article got it right about Baldwin Park building the grocery store right in town was a big plus (one of the things I wish Plant St in WG still had.)

I also wonder if Celebration would benefit from incorporating, although given how wackadoodle WP politics get that may be wishful thinking.